Question

These phenomena were at one time speculated to be artificial because similar signals called perytons were shown to be caused by a microwave. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name these phenomena whose distribution can be analyzed by plotting them on graphs of fluence versus dispersion measure. Many of them have been observed with the CHIME (“chime”) telescope.
ANSWER: fast radio bursts [or FRBs] (Perytons are named after the mythological creature from Jorge Luis Borges’s Book of Imaginary Beings.)
[10m] A crude rule of thumb calculates this quantity for a fast radio burst by dividing its dispersion measure by 1,000. Surveys of this quantity, such as the one carried out by the SDSS, measure it to map the large-scale structures of galaxies.
ANSWER: redshift [accept cosmological redshift or photometric redshift; reject “Doppler redshift” or “Doppler shift” or “blueshift”]
[10e] The first fast radio burst was detected in a survey of these objects that were discovered by Jocelyn Bell Burnell. They are neutron stars that emit radio waves at regular periods.
ANSWER: pulsars [accept pulsating radio sources]
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Summary

2023 ACF Nationals04/22/2023Y2013.5095%20%20%

Data

Northwestern AClaremont A001010
Cornell AImperial A0101020
Yale BWUSTL A001010
Chicago BIowa State A10101030
MIT AChicago C001010
Columbia BPurdue A0101020
Florida ASouth Carolina A1001020
NYU AGeorgia Tech B0000
Virginia AJohns Hopkins A001010
Chicago AMinnesota A001010
Texas AOhio State A1001020
Florida BPenn State A001010
Rutgers AHarvard A001010
WUSTL BRutgers B001010
Vanderbilt AHouston A001010
Cornell BStanford A001010
Georgia Tech AIllinois A0101020
Duke AMichigan A001010
Indiana AToronto A1001020
UC Berkeley BMcGill A001010